Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.” This is such an assuring powerful message from God, from today’s first reading. Our God is fiercely protective of us, His beloved creation. I am sure some of us may have personally experienced God’s protective love, His wall of fire encircling us, defending, guarding, sheltering us from harm and hurt that may destroy our souls. His goal is to save humanity, and in response, in line with His love for us, we are called to be His hands and feet, to extend His protective love towards others. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a saint who made God’s love visible in concrete ways. He fed, clothed and sheltered the very deprived and forgotten people, especially the imprisoned slaves with generous charity, providing for their very basic needs of a human person. His mission continues, through Vincentian priests, sisters, brothers, and lay members who serve the in nearl...

 “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now?” This passage from the prophet Haggai was written after the dedication of the second Temple. The exile in Babylon lasted about 70 years. Many Israelites who returned and were in their 80s or 90s, had seen the original temple built by Solomon in their youth. They could still remember its former glory. In our own parish, there are also people who remember the “former glory” of our Cathedral. Msgr. Beeson is one such person. He saw St. Ambrose Cathedral in its original beauty. Our Cathedral is still beautiful today, but it does look different now, some features and designs have faded or are worn out. If we have the resources, perhaps we would try to restore some of these to preserve the legacy left behind by our forefathers. But when Jesus spoke of the Temple, He was referring to His own body. And later, St. Paul would teach that our bodies too are temples of the Holy Spirit. That brings us to ...

 “At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.” How do you pray? Today’s first reading gives us a beautiful description of how priest Ezra prayed. He considered himself ‘wretched’, totally unworthy of God and His mercy. This expressed his deep reverence for the vast greatness and graciousness of God. He fell on his knees with outstretched arms. This expressed his total surrender, obedience and submission to the ultimate good and perfect will of God. Ezra’s humble prayer disposition is beautiful. He prayed with a deep, sincere, and remorseful heart, laid bare before God, bearing the guilt of his people, yet completely appreciative and grateful for God’s forgiveness. He offered this prayer after the completion and dedication of the rebuilt Temple. The broken temple now rebuilt signified a reconciled relationship with God. Now the Israelites can worship in God’s h...

 “For the dedication of this house of God, they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, together with twelve he-goats as a sin-offering for all Israel, in keeping with the number of the tribes of Israel.” That was quite a massive sacrifice! But if we check back, during the dedication of the first temple, King Solomon offered even greater numbers of sacrificial animals: 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep and goats. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that during festival times, as many as 250,000 animals were sacrificed in the temple in a single day. But did God really delight in such sacrifices? Not in the way the people thought He would. Again and again, through the prophets, God reminded His people: “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” and “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Yet the Israelites convinced themselves that piling up sacrifices was the way to please God. Those offerings, by themselves, did not draw them closer to Him, and did not draw God clos...

 “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Somehow, priests in general have a special sub-vocation for building projects. Ezra was a priest, and he too was rebuilding the temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians; thus, this book of Ezra paid much attention to this concern. Back in my home diocese, there was a parish priest who decided to build a new church for his parish which was in a very poor area. He knew his parishioners couldn’t give much money, so he gave each family some banana seedlings according to the size of their farms. Some got only two, some got up to fifty. And he told them: “Grow them, harvest them, sell them, and bring the money back to build the church.” That was indeed “seed money”. When the people saw the results and how they could further contribute to building their new church, they became more involved and creative. The mothers started making mango pickles and other v...

 “Keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this month’s Catholic Mirror, Fr. Ron Rolheiser shared a story about a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. At the celebration, the husband said: “When we got married 50 years ago, we didn’t have much. But we had an unconscious trust that if we lived by the Ten Commandments and the laws of the Church, then things would turn out all right, and I think, they did.” Fifty years of marriage is not just “all right”, many of you who are married would know, it is hard work. And truly, very often God’s grace is at work harder than the couple. So fifty years of marriage is a testimony to a life of faith and full of God’s grace. The Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and the Israelites thousands of years ago are still relevant for us today, guiding us every step of our faith life. The challenge is that human nature resists compliance and obedience to commands. We don’t like r...

 “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” This arrangement, spoken from the Cross, may look like a simple and practical arrangement for the care of His surviving mother, but truly, it carries a deeper and profound truth. It is one of the ‘seven last words of Jesus’. Quite naturally and obviously, He entrusted the care of His beloved Mother to someone reliable and obedient. He gave her to John. And at the same time, He also entrusted the continued nurturing of John, His beloved disciple, to His Mother. Jesus had no earthly possessions which will wither and end to leave behind. What He left, as a lasting forever legacy to His disciples and as a gift of eternity to all believers to come, was the institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper. Now from the Cross, He is giving to the whole of humanity something personal: His own Mother,  whom He took His human flesh and blood from when she carried Him in her womb. Why John the beloved ap...

“That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.” I love the song “Christ is my firm foundation.” Not only the music, but also the words are so powerful. Christian life is nothing less than a life rooted in Christ. We are not simply following a set of principles or moral laws. We are following a person, the living Christ who died for us, who rose for us, and who calls us to walk in His footsteps. A life rooted in Christ means we live as He lived, and we die as He died, for love. We imitate His sacrificial love by carrying our own crosses every day. And when our life is built on this solid foundation, nothing can shake us. No temptation, no worldly lies, no passing ideology promising an “easier” way of peace can destroy us. We live in a world full of confusion. Sadly, even some Christians today follow worldly ideologies and then try to ...

 “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.” St. Paul, after his conversion, admitted that all the persecution and executions he carried out before he knew Christ, were done out of ignorance and unbelief. He thought Jesus Christ and His followers were a threat to the Jewish community, he thought Jesus was a fake, and so for the good of the Jewish people, he sought to eliminate them. Paul persecuted Christians because of he did not believe that Jesus was truly the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus Himself was unjustly accused, tortured, and killed although He was spreading His Father’s love to the world because the authorities misunderstood Him and saw Him as a threat to their society and community. Thousands of early Christians were martyred for similar reasons. They held on to their faith, they did not budge when told to deny the Lord, they did not water down the Lord’s teachings under...

Holy Family school Mass Homily   “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Have you ever heard: “You are what you eat”? So be careful what you are always eating… Now have you also heard: “What you think, that you become.” I think there is a lot of truth in this. If you are always thinking about the same things, you will one become more and more like it, or you would behave more and more like the thought. There is a story about Napoleon Bonaparte. Once, he went to a palm reader and asked him to read his hand. The reader told him the usual things, what had happened to his life and so on. But Napoleon interrupted: “Do you see any possibility that I could become a king?” The palm reader replied, “No. Every king has a special line on his hand, but you don’t have it.” And you know what Napoleon did? He immediately took a knife, sliced on his palm, and cut out that special line himself. The palm reader then said, “Yes, you will become an emperor.” Napoleon always dreamed of ...

 “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We might have heard of this phrase: “What you think, that you become.” This quote has often been attributed to Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and I think there is a lot of truth in it. If you are constantly or regularly thinking about a certain thing, you will over time gravitate towards it, and bring it to reality, either in accomplishment or in imitation. There is a story about Napoleon Bonaparte. Once, he went to a palm reader and asked him to read the lines on his hand to foretell his life in the future. The palm reader told him the regular usual stuff, but Napoleon wanted to know something more important, he interrupted and asked: “Do you see any possibility that I could become a king?” The palm reader replied, “No. Every king has a special line on his palm, but you don’t have it.” Napoleon immediately took a knife, cut his palm, and drew out that special line in his palm for himself. The palm reader then said, “Yes, you wi...

“Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” What a perfect example for us to follow! Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, prayed. He who is God the Son, prayed to God the Father. He spent the whole night in prayer before choosing His disciples. In His divinity, Jesus already knew the Father’s will. Yet in His humanity, He is just like us. He needed to spend time with His Father, to pray and to discern to be aligned with God’s will. Jesus shows us a powerful example: we too must pray before making important decisions, to ask God what His will is for us. Sometimes, when we act without consulting Him, we may find ourselves going against His will or going a wrong long way before reaching which lead us through unnecessary suffering or other unbearable consequences. So bring your plans to Jesus, tell Him your hopes, your preferences, your wishes, and He will bless you with the wisdom to choose wise and right. But what if we prayed, heard, followed a...

 “Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.” And so on. The list of Jesus’ ancestors goes on. When I looked at today’s Gospel, I initially thought of skipping the genealogy of Jesus and use the shorter option. But I thought again, and I decided on the long version, proclaiming fully the genealogy of Jesus. Why? Back in March, one of my nieces turned 15. As an uncle, I would always ask my nieces and nephews what they would like for their birthdays, so I asked her. She replied, “Uncle, pay $125 for me to do an ancestry test. My dad’s family says his ancestors came from Persia, and I want to know if it’s true.” I agreed. That’s an interesting birthday gift. When the results came back, it showed she was about 3% Persian. A few weeks later, she asked me for another favor. “Uncle, I need you to do the test too, so I can see the picture of my family from mom’s side.” She was so serious about it and kept reminding me every da...

Holy Family School Mass Homily.   “At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus healing many people with different diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick in bed with a very high fever. She was not merely resting, in fact her fever was so bad that she was unable to get out of bed. I am guessing it could be 103 or 104 degrees! Normally, if we get such a high fever, it would take us days to recover with strong medication. But when Jesus visited Peter’s mother-in-law, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever, that means He scolded the fever, and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Wow! Jesus is the King of the Universe, He has power over everything in the world, if you would only believe in Him and trust Him. Even today, Jesus continues ...

“At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus laying hands on people to heal them from various diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a high fever. She was lying in bed, unable to get up or get on with her usual chores. In those days, many people, especially vulnerable folks, would die from high fevers which could have unknown underlying causes like pneumonia or organ infection. There was no medication for high fevers in the past. So, Peter’s mother-in-law was at risk of dying. When Jesus went to her, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Even today, Jesus continues to effect healing on people, often through the intercession of His saints.  This weekend, Carlo Acutis will be canonized by the church. He ...

 “For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.”  Have you experienced having a thief coming into your home, silently and unexpectedly, into your home? Imagine coming out of your room at night and seeing a stranger stealing your valuables. It will be shocking and frightening. Today’s reading described the day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night, silently and unexpectedly, because no one knows when and how the day will happen. Jesus will come at a time we do not expect, both at the end of our own life and at the end of time. Even though many people have analyzed the signs mentioned in the Bible, and tried to predict when the world would end, no one has gotten it right so far.  And anticipating the end of a person’s life is never accurate too, even for someone who seems to be dying, no one can know when exactly it will happen. Deaths that happen in the most unexpected situations are also common. We could be speaking wit...